South Africa Delivers Animated Tails

A new 13 x 10-minute series being billed as the first CG series from Africa is currently in pre-production at Johannesburg, South Africa studio AnimMate. "The series will be entirely produced by African talent in South Africa," Tanja Botha of Johannesburg-based Animation Africa, which is distributing the series, told C21 MEDIA. "It's a first for Africa. We're pursuing presales and investment opportunities at the moment, and will probably be taking the show to MIPCOM Junior." TAILS is aimed at children aged two to six years-old and features native African animals that will illustrate life skills, social skills and educational concepts to the preschool audience. The five main characters -- Zebbo the zebra, Elfie the elephant, Raffie the giraffe, Lee the lion and Upupa the bird -- will learn lessons in each episode with the help of Ntate, the wise old tree. Production is scheduled to begin in January 2003 for an April 2004 delivery.